Holes Appearing is a solo project from Iowa, USA. And with Final Lobby, they sever us with a classic example of ambient music featuring everything you’d expect fulfilled in a balanced manner. 

From the very first listens, one cannot miss that the sound production has a sonic fragrance of rawness, but at the same time, it’s quite rich. Intentionally “dull” as an old fabric that just came into light. We find generous quantities of bass that even go into crunching, penetrating highs. 

The claustrophobic atmosphere is droning around certain themes that either evolve or contract but are always seemingly in a rush. The sudden rapid movements in quite a few parts and the agitation being evident, consist of a roller coaster of moods. Holes Appearing are openly flirting with that dark and bleak corner of the genre, without being stanch in their variations; either from dimmed to lightened or vice versa, their affiliation however is with the darker kin. 

Final Lobby in its physical form is handmade the old school way. These recordings were dubbed straight to cassettes with a very thin, almost transparent background layer of hiss that can be detected or at least in my equipment. Not an error at all, in the contrary, it just adds a more “live” feeling to the experience, something that is moreover characteristically epitomized by the somewhat abrupt ending of the tracks. Τhis “liveness” can be easily sensed in its totality, a plus for me. 

The whole outcome features both engagement and craftsmanship. A detail that should be mentioned is that some of the frequencies, especially from the low end, get blasting their way up to your ears. Maybe a slight EQ fine-tuning in your equipment will be useful; your part in the engagement. 
My encounter with Holes Appearing was quite pleasant one. The invested time is rewarded if one enjoys fully cinematic ambient with all the harshness preserved. To add to the release, the cassette is presented in a sweet little box containing images. Drop by here to listen and to get yours